First Team News

Pellegrini hails Blues' "professional response"

Manuel

Manuel Pellegrini was full of praise for his team following the gutsy performance at the KC Stadium.

The Blues lost skipper Vincent Kompany to an early dismissal for a foul on Nikica Jelavic and had to play for over 80 minutes with ten men.

"It was a very good response in a very difficult week," said the City boss.

"We just lost against Wigan and against Barcelona and we needed to win today. Playing with one player less was very difficult. It was a good performance because we defended well with the ball and without the ball, and we also had three good chances to score. It was a very professional response from the players."

Although admitting that the red card shown to the Blues' influential captain cannot be contested, Manuel believed referee Lee Mason could and should have blown for an earlier foul on Kompany by Jelavic however refused to be drawn further into discussions regarding officials.

"It’s clear that before Vincent’s foul there is a foul from Jelavic that the referee didn’t see and didn’t whistle for. Of course Vincent’s foul is a red card but there was a foul from Jelavic before. I don’t want to talk about the referee. We won the game and we played very well."

Similarly, Pellegrini refused to comment on a fiesty second half altercation between Joe Hart and George Boyd in which the Hull man claimed for a penalty against City's on-rushing 'keeper. Replays show there was little contact in the incident.

"It’s impossible from my position to see the other side so I’m not sure what happened. I won’t talk about the referee. I want to talk about my team.," reiterated the manager.

"We try to respond in the same way we did before. Unfortunately it’s three weeks since we played in the Premier League so the other teams won their points and we have three games in hand. That why it was so important to win the three points today."